Emina Ekic
Anyone that follows women's soccer in the United States is familiar with Emina Ekic. The Louisville native just concluded her fourth and final season with the Cardinals.
Ekic has stayed local her entire life, having an illustrious career at duPont Manual High School before becoming one of the most highly-decorated players ever to put on a Louisville uniform.
In four seasons, Ekic played in 66 matches, starting 65 of them. She tallied 29 goals and 19 assists throughout her career for 77 total points. The 29 goals ranks fourth in program history and the 19 assists ranks second all-time.
She was the first Louisville player named ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 2020. Top Drawer Soccer named her a Top 10 midfielder.
Ekic never scored fewer than seven goals per season, including the shortened 2020 season, where her mark of seven was on pace to obliterate her career-high of eight goals in 2019. Her three assists in 2020 was also close to being on pace to match the eight assists in 2019.
Ekic now prepares for the 2021 NWSL Draft, which is set for this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. It will be aired on NWSL's Twitch channel.
She is projected as a late-first round or early-second round pick. Like many, I hope to see her remain local and get drafted by Racing Louisville FC. Racing Louisville has the first and fifth picks in the first round and the first pick (11th overall) in the second round so the opportunity does present itself. Currently, UNC's Emily Fox is projected as the first overall pick, but seeing as Fox is a defender it does leave the door open for more reason to draft a midfielder.
I was fortunate enough to take Emina's grad photos for her as well as a chance to meet her family. At the conclusion of the grad photos we had the opportunity to have an exclusive Cardinal Couple interview with her. We discussed her time as a Cardinal as well as plans for the future, which of course includes soccer.
You can check out that interview here.
UofL held a press conference yesterday with Ekic and her coach Karen Ferguson Dayes. Paulie attended that via phone, but UofL has not shared that with the public yet, we'll post it here when they do.
Here's also a four minute clip UofL did with Emina about her journey;
We thank Emina for her excellent career as a Cardinal and wish her the best in her future endeavors!
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
PS: We will get back to coverage of UofL women's basketball tomorrow. Louisville WBB is still #2 in the nation and Hailey Van Lith picked up her second ACC Freshman of the Week honor yesterday, so the Cards keep rolling along!
Hey Ho, it's Dave O
ReplyDeleteEmina was a joy to watch and seems to care very deeply about family and the community of Louisville. Ill follow her career and know you guys will here.
Dave O